Layout

Ahhh, much better. I feel uneasy and like a noob whenever I keep a template up for long. (Which reminds me, I should fling something together for the blog I've posted the actual stories of this project on.. but I do sort of like the standard template on that, makes for easy reading, something my own creations aren't always so strong on.)

Have yet to test this on any comp but my own, so apologies if it's dreadful elsewhere, will see how it looks in the lab and maybe on my roomie's comp.. resolution's set pretty damn high on mine and tom's comps, so probably not such good places to test things. But I really like how the background came together, just layered a handful of portions of my photos over each other as usual, dirt and dust and worn things, and a scan of a sheet of looseleaf I initially used on some other project years ago. Colored it brown, darkened the sides, and happiness. Here's hoping Garamond is a common enough font that no-one has to see this in evil tnr.. though I should probably check this against the apple fonts. bah.

Snow Crash

Just a quick tip for anyone who won't have the book before we need it (I'm still waiting to hear what I need for another class, before I make an order) - I found the full text online, free, in txt form. Not an ebook, not an audio book (which was all I could find on bittorrent), not prettily done, but plain and legible.
And free.
Don't be scared of the russian page title - text's in english.

Bwa for the internet. <3

Media Artist HW

Find five (5) media artists who provoke, inspire and wow you, using the massive list of doom:

Perry Hoberman has done a number of interesting projects involving technology. The one that strikes me the most, however, is one entitled "Zombiac" (though "The Bar Code Hotel" is also incredibly fascinating as a concept to me). This is an installation piece which incorperates a number of old computers, whose insides have been torn out, leaving zombie-like electronic shells. Inside the monitors have been placed green fluorescent lights, which turn on and off at varied intervals, which accompanies sounds (each computer having a unique type of sound) - simulating conversation. When one "speaks", the other monitors will turn toward it, and flash back in response. When a human viewer draws near and speaks to a computer, the monitor will stay dark and the computer silent, simulating listening, until the person stops speaking, when it will appear to answer. I really love the way in which he humanizes the interactions between computers, allowing them to visibly share in exchanges amongst themselves. I can only imagine how eerie it would be to walk amongst them - I know I would have a very strong sense that they were speaking, communicating, if only I could understand the words.

At first glance, visitors might simply perceive an arrangement of generic workstations. Then, as the monitors spin to face and flash at each other, a perception of a strange kind of community emerges. Finally, wandering through the installation, visitors may have the sensation of a man-made (but nonetheless alien) intelligence listening and addressing them, attempting to communicate, to establish contact.

While poking at various links to works involving barcodes, I stumbled across this project by Peter Coffin. Barcodes are such a impersonal concept, purely electronic in nature and decipherable only by machines, a means of language we could not hope to understand, entirely commercial. In this project, the artist provides barcodes which can be saved and printed out as stickers, which anyone can place overtop of the original barcode on a product in a store. When scanned in at the register, rather than a price, a four-letter word will appear on the screen, and in effect poetically disrupt the purchase. Taking something of cold electronic numbers and finances and yanking it back into the realm of humanity, provoking thought rather than computation, really makes me smile. The interchange between technology and reality is something that intrigues me endlessly to begin with...


Another site I found with interesting projects is 0100101110101101.org, concerning media, technology, and manipulations thereof. They have accomplished several large-scale hoaxes, involving the existence of an artist (with a full body of work) and a large-budget film, as well as hijacking the Vatican's website for a period of time. These projects impress me greatly, and the idea of tricking people into believing they are truly receiving emails from the Pope's staff, and twisting around articles from the Vatican's website just enough to still look credible but have the wrong message, is really fascinating to me. Twisted, but interesting. I think the one that really struck me though, was a computer virus they created and spread as a work of art. Biennale.py is apparently still on the loose - so far as I can see it presents no real harm, but is a love poem which spreads itself wherever it may, doing nothing more than inserting its words into any files you may have which are written in the Python language. It'll spread out of control, it'll make a round-the-world trip over two minutes, it'll go where you'll never go over your entire life, chased by anti-virus cops trying to regain control over it. In this very moment it's wandering around at the speed of byte. It's an art form that finds you, you don't have to go to museums to see it, the work itself will reach you inside your house.

The virus stresses its "aesthetic qualities" through the beauty of its own source code, a "love poem" being an integral part of its executing code. «We've chosen Python - says Massimo, Epidemic spokesman - exactly for the possibility to give any name to the variables, in practice you can write software with your own words».

The Thought Shop has a number of works related to text, and many of the projects are attempts to make manipulating and integrating digital text easier and more immediate. While the work combining changing text, and combinations of text and images, was what initially caught my eye, going through the projects, I Know What You're Thinking really grabbed me. It's a downloadable program, which, when run, will skim through all the text files (and any eudora email files) on your computer, and show snippets of them at random, piecing together a real-time collage of every bit of your typewritten history. The result is a disconcertingly intimate and schizophrenically lyrical look into your activities on that machine. I love the connections that we form between words and phrases that are juxtaposed at random - even if there was no meaning in their being together, we'll begin to create connections and a deeper meaning between them.


Along the lines of an interest in the relation between reality and virtual existance, the work Rebecca Allen has done really intrigues me. Some of her work dates back into the '80s, one even in the late '70s, and continues through the present, working with connections between computers and humans, attempting to make computers relatable on a human level. Her "Bush Soul" works were what first caught my eye, tying together virtual avatars with the West African idea of a bush soul, where a human's soul exists both within their own body, as well as in part in an animal. Our soul, our consciousness, will somehow be embodied in an avatar. The avatar becomes our other body, another container for our spirit. Seeing how immersive the current state of gaming culture can be.. it's interesting to see these ideas explored in an artistic manner. Though the project began in 1997, and thus is far outdated now in some ways, the ideas which came through in it are pretty close to the mark in the present. (And I like that she makes a point about creating a virtual environment meant for exploring and relating, not shooting things.)

Homework

Answers to Matt's questions:

1) Title of recent book your read, why you chose it.
Re-read Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles and The Illustrated Man... Chose because it'd been awhile since I'd read some of his books, and he's one of my favourite authors. Started with Fahrenheit 451 a trip home or two ago, and was reminded of why I love his work so much. His writing style and use of uncommon metaphors, as well as the telling aspects of humanity and profound truths he reveals in such a conversational realistic sort of way, are the two main things which have drawn me to his work. This time around, however, I found myself really admiring and studying the way he is able to construct a whole world in the space of a ten-page story - something I've been working toward myself.

2) Recent album,(MP3 archive, I mix) you bought/downloaded, why you chose it.
Sigur Ros' "Takk...". I've loved their work for years, it's incredibly unique, ethereal and emotional, full of beauty and yearning. "Takk..." is their newest album, and it relates essentially a fairy tale, of a boy who woke one morning to find the sun gone, and sets off to find it. The videos (linked to on apple's site somewhere) are stunningly beautiful, and the music... the cd didn't leave my cd player the whole time I was home.

3) Top 3 media artist that interest you, and why.
- Kaori Yuki has drawn me in lately, manga artist of Angel Sanctuary, among others. Absolutely stunning detail and beautiful, beautiful images, really unique compositions in some. And lots and lots of angels, as well as storylines as intricate as the drawings.
- Mark Holthusen. While wandering around the internet recently, I stumbled across a lot of interesting things, including his photographs for Ca Ira, an opera about the French Revolution put together by one of the guys from Pink Floyd. Have yet to check out any of the music... but the photos are stunningly beautiful, combining photographs with digital elements, and I'm definitely looking into more of his work, the look he achieves in these images is so strong and interesting, very much like old paintings yet far more vivid.
- Cyan studios. I've gone back to playing/re-playing the Myst games, partially because the idea of uncovering a story as you explore abandoned rooms and objects ties in with my plan for my capstone project. Though the first few are beginning to grow a little dated in their appearance, due to the growth of technology over the past ten years, the approach, unique style, beauty, and compelling nature of the games is as strong as I remember.

4) How familiar are you with Macintosh computers
Relatively familiar, though all of that is from working in the lab the past few years. Good with computers in general though, so I can sort things out.


Respond to these terms, use full sentences and be descriptive. Do not define the term.
1) Simulation
Like life but not quite real, pseudo-stimulation, simulated senses. It feels as though you've been there, and to your mind perhaps it is no different, but there is no dust from desert sands hiding in the folds of your clothes, no dry heat hanging in the air about you, only the images of flat ground and thoughts of long walks. ...something I once regarded as a negative thing, a lack of experience, but now I wonder a little about. Does it replace experience or add to the possibilities of what one can have?
2) Postmodernism
The future has passed, there is nothing new to find or see or become. The world and its limits are pinned down to the floor, mapped out and complete. Culture and change are paramont, mass production prevails and so may be appropriated to convolute its own intentions. ...I don't usually pay much heed to one artistic movement or the other, it's like applying genre labels to music, the things that interest me aren't easily categorized, and it forces a preconcieved conotation onto everything. There are ideas in this concept which interest me, but I would be slow to say I like or dislike something because it falls under such a heading.
3) Symbolism
Adds depth or aggrevation, depending on one's point of view. Is it a further meaning to images presented, or only imagined connections? All depends on the point of view, is yours the same as the author's? Interpretation is individual, but is your meaning what the author was saying, or is it your personal experience coloring your perception? Was either the author's intent? ...something I hated in high school, but now find myself drawn more and more toward. In one of my drawing classes a year or so ago, I did an entire series of images featuring fallen angels and flowers in various settings, where the meaning of the flowers tied together and enhanced the meaning of the images. I find myself repeating images and feeling the connotations and deeper meanings of certain phrases or objects, and I love the depth which symbolism can lend to things. (I still think a character in MacBeth saying "well, well, well" was merely a casual comment, not a reference to graves and death, but...)
4) Propaganda
Mass-produced messages, impersonal and yet intensely personal, to the point of attempting to alter your personal opinion. A very strong and negative political connotation, yet we're (largely unconsciously) surrounded by it almost every moment via any sort of media, pushing one product or idea or another. ...not something that's usually my style of thing to be interested in, and yet...I find myself intrigued by the ways in which people are able to alter thought processes like that. Last semester, one of the ideas discussed in the media arts club was to create a religion in Second Life, and promote it as if it were a real thing, hopefully creating true adherents who knew nothing of the scam behind it. That really, really strruck me, and I was incredibly interested in trying it, and though we decided to head toward something else, that idea is still lurking in the back of my mind.
5) Franchise
Evil commercial chains which circle the planet, binding up the more personable and personal world of small businesses, providing an equally mediocre experience for all. ...something I read once, can't recall if it was L'Engle or Bradbury or someone else entirely...equal does not mean identical, people being on equal ground doesn't mean they're all indistinguishable copies. That's right, Madeline L'Engle, A Wrinkle in Time...another one I should re-read soon, it's been a couple of years. Though I remember how friendly and profitable and nice-sounding franchises were back in my 7th grade home economics class, and though I'm still more likely to go to a Perkin's than some unknown family restauraunt in an unfamiliar town, I look around me and see the same storefronts in nearly every small town, and it really scares me.
6) Truth
...after completing an entire philosophy minor, I doubt I'm any better at settling out its nature or anything about it. I still have to believe that there is a central truth to things, an objective fact, even about right and wrong. In some cases it's a matter of scientific mathematic or logical proof, in other cases it's more difficult to "prove" by such commonly accepted means, it rests somewhere between the unprovable heart and soul of humanity. But simply because we haven't calibrated a microscope quite properly yet and can't yet see it, I don't think that's any less reason to believe it. Though our science and technology and knowledge has grown, it grows harder and harder to find those other truths. It seems the fog of perspectives and proliferation of biases and outlets for the voice of everyone's individual view on the world is only growing, and will likely continue to do so, and the focus on the differences between details leads our minds away from the knowledge that we all, deep down, have far more in common than we do in difference.

Capstone

Another matt class, another new blog... but I'll also put up production notes on my capstone project, and point people over here when they ask what I'm doing rather than trying to explain. ^^; Continuation, I hope, of my nanowrimo from this year, Beneath the Dust, giving it a home online and showing as well as writing the stories. but we'll see what happens.

p.s. blogger template for now, when I think of something I'll make my own layout as usual. ^^;